It was discovered on 15 October 1985, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona, in the United States.
[3] In July 2016, a first rotational lightcurve of Carolyn was obtained from photometric observations by astronomers Brian Warner, Robert Stephens and Dan Coley at the Center for Solar System Studies in California.
Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 40.92 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.22 magnitude (U=3).
[7][a] While not being a slow rotator, its period is significantly longer than the typical 2 to 20 hours measured for most asteroids.
The official naming citation was prepared by David Levy and Jean Mueller, and published by the Minor Planet Center on 27 June 1991 (M.P.C.